Celebrate Banned Book Week

Read a book... don't BAN a book. Sheesh. I swear the world is falling apart. Some school districts and towns seem to be taking this literally as YA authors all around the country are coming under fire. And now teachers in a school in Kentucky are not allowed to wear a tee shirt with this quote on it because it constitutes political activity. Seriously? I think Banned Book Week is a reading activity. Something libraries and book stores have consistently promoted to encourage kids to read. Maybe it's time for another book Mr. Bradbury...

Lost in Linkland...

Candy Corn Hershey's Kisses. These are to die for.

I think I need to embrace the mustache craze and get one of these magnets...

Fairy Tale finger puppets patterns

The Meaning of Photoshop by Khoi Vinh -- an article that ponders the role photoshop plays in our perceptions of beauty, real or imagined and whether such a thing is a destructive force if not acknowledged.

Photos of Marilyn Monroe reading, reading, reading... via Sheila Variations

a few others:

Yep, reading is sexy.

Love Happens

Love Happens (2009)

After a twitter based debate over the price of matinees at River Cinema Theatre my sister and I just decided to SEE a film in the afternoon to settle this once and for all. There were a number of choices and we opted for the "romantic comedy" option, though I think it could be better labeled "romantic tragedy." I cried A LOT during this film. It had a lot do with loss and grieving and working through that. It's the premise of the film, really. So I'm not sure why I missed that. I guess I just saw Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart looking lovey and I got confused. In the film, Eckhart's character Burke Ryan's wife died three years earlier and he's written a best selling book about how he's moved on. Only, he hasn't. His agent books him for a workshop/presentation in Seattle where the accident happened and he is suddenly being forced to deal with it all head on. Jennifer Aniston's quirky word-loving character Eloise, runs a flower shop and their paths converge one day at his hotel when he catches her in the act of vandalism by graffiti.

The film is still enjoyable, even more so if you need a good cry. Not the best, not the worst. You might want to stick with this one as a rental.

By the way, I was right. Matinees are $4.50 as opposed to their evening prices of $6.50. Ashley was confused because the last film she saw had a $2.00 surcharge because it was 3D.

Fall Into Reading 2009

To feed my reading habit, I'm going to take part in a reading challenge. And YOU can join too!

Here’s a brief recap of how to be a part of Fall Into Reading 2009:

• Make a list of books you want to read (or finish reading) this fall. Your list can be as long or as short as you’d like. (Also, feel free to modify your list during the challenge if it’s not working for you.)

• Write a blog post containing your list and submit it to the original post on Callapiddar Days using the Mr. Linky at the bottom of Katrina's post.
  

• Get reading! The challenge goes from today, September 22nd, through December 20th.

• Check out other participants’ lists and add to your own to-read-someday pile!

• Write a post about your challenge experience in December, telling us all about whether you reached your goals and how Fall Into Reading went for you. But remember: this is a low-pressure challenge that should be fun. As long as you do some reading this fall (and enjoy it!), that’s good enough for me (Katrina!).

I have 377 books in my "to read" category on Goodreads. I'm overwhelmed with goodness in book-form and yet, I sometimes find myself unnecessarily bogged down in a book. I am hoping to be able to read both the books for my book clubs and also the teen books I need to read to stay current with the up and coming authors and fiction students are reading. I also have a handful of professional books that I want to dig into... In the midst of all that I still have numerous other books I'm eager to read just for pleasure. So just for kicks I aim to read the following titles between now and December 20th! We shall see if I'm up to the challenge. Certainly, other books will creep in (they always do) but I'm hoping I can still tackle these ones too.

Here's my reading challenge list:

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson
Freedom Writer's Diary by Erin Gruwell
Paper Towns by John Green
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
Silverfin by Charlie Higson
The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller
Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
What Narcissism Means to Me by Tony Hoagland
Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall

**** update ****

I'll update my progress by labeling each completed title in boldface. ten down, one in progress... more to come!

At the Drive-In

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

It's been awhile since I've read this book, so comparison wasn't looming large. Usually that's a good thing when it comes to these books. The main problem I have now is separating out the stories. The last three books seemed to just blend in my mind. In this film we learn about Voldemort's past, and the hoar cruxes and yet, I was thinking that they under played all the half-blood prince stuff, while in the book it seemed like a bigger deal. It is the TITLE of the book/film, after all. I do love Jim Broadbent who is the latest addition to the Hogwarts staff, as Professor Horace Slughorn. While the film was actually pretty long, it did seem to fly by. Mike, Pam, and I enjoyed the final drive in of the season at Warren, Minnesota's Sky-View Drive In.

Sigh.

I was just watching part of the Ted Kennedy special I recorded a few weeks ago. Man, they just showed footage of the night Bobby was shot and I am totally crying... I hate that there are such lunatics in this country. People who hate and fear change, change that could bring good ... and people who hate it so much that they'd kill to stop it. When will it end? It all makes me a little sick.

My Family Can't Afford to Wait

(500) Days of Summer

Well, I took your suggestion, Sara! It didn't take much convincing. I have been eager to see this film ever since I saw the first trailer of it. I love Zooey Deshchanel and her taste and her style and her voice and so I was convinced it had to be good and I was right.

500 Days of Summer is not your typical film which typically means I'll love it! The film is quirky in its style of delivery and it also has loads of good music and fun film allusions.

Summer moves to LA from Michigan, (Deschanel) takes a job at a greeting card company where Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is languishing, putting off the true effort of pursuing a career as an architect. It starts out as a "boy meets girl" film but quickly becomes something so much better. The chronological structure of the film bounces between days following rejection and the first few days of their budding relationship. The chronology could be a bit confusing, but it doesn't really matter. One of my favorite stylistic bits is the expectations/reality sequence that shows a split screen and that with one little scene shows so much about how people's perspectives can vary.

The brother/sister bond between Tom and his soccer playing little sis is very Phoebe/Holden Caulfield and she actually ends up offering rather sound advice. Also, I love Summer's hair! THAT was what I was thinking when I was considering bangs.

Here's the official site and Ebert's review (4 stars, he liked it too!)

Pico de Gallo

Ingredients:
3 medium tomatoes (firm to the touch)
1 medium sweet yellow onion
1 green onion with the stalk (optional -- I skipped it because I didn't have one)
3 jalapenos or serrano peppers
1/2 cilantro bush (equal to about 1/2 cup or more chopped)
1 pinch of salt (or pinch per tomato, if you prefer)

Dice the tomatoes and the onions into little cubes, the cilantro and jalapeno should be finely chopped. Then toss the ingredients together evenly.

Optional: You can add a bit of fresh lemon or lime juice if you're going to serve it on fajita tacos or with seafood, I like to eat mine as a kind of "fresh chunky salsa" and serve it with chips so I like a bit of lemon juice in mine. Scoops are a great chip to use with this if you are doing the chip/dip option.

I've made this recipe plenty of times before and it's a little different every time. However, this time I used tomatoes, jalapenos, and onions from my garden. Yay!

Pretend Pasta

I've been intrigued by the idea of zucchini noodles and what I call "pretend pasta" ever since I ate at Ecopolitan last May. When it came time for my garden I planted spaghetti squash so I could explore new foods.

I baked my squash at 375 for about an hour and let it cool for about 10 minutes before slicing it in half and scooping out the seeds. Then with a fork I scraped the squash away from its skin and it just naturally forms spaghetti strands--yum!



All summer I've been meaning to make pesto because I have so much yummy basil, but I had no idea how to make it. I found a recipe online and tried that one, but something didn't work. The recipe claimed it would make 3 cups of pesto but it doesn't even include 3 cups of ingredients so I should have figured that out before I tried. I may have needed more basil or more liquid. It wasn't a sauce so much as a paste. So then I tried another recipe in an effort to repair. That one called for the same amount of basil leaves but more than double the olive oil and parmesan cheese so I added more of each of those and even a tbsp of water, but it still only made about 3/4 - 1 cup of pesto sauce. Again, maybe I just needed more basil? I am NOT the pesto expert, but I'm not giving up. I will try again when my basil plants produce a bit more.

The recipe I tried for my first dose of "pretend pasta" was Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Mozzerella. It was good but it seemed a wee bit oily to me. I only used 1/2 of my spaghetti squash too. It was just soooo much squash in just half that I didn't think it would work with more. I'll save the other half for a marinara type sauce next!

Peanut, Pet of my Heart

loving his dried banana snacks

learning his letters while keeping his teeth trim

plotting an escape

blurry, but my favorite expression

The Last Days of Summer

I'm trying to spend them well. It actually seems like we've had nicer weather since school started than we've had the entire month before. Typical. Earlier today I made a trip to the Farmer's Market with my pal Kristine and I splurged on fudge to give my sister Ashley. Kristine picked up a strawberry/rhubarb pie after discovering juneberry pies were "out of season." The stalls were loaded with produce but my garden is too. At least it's starting to be.

The day was breezy but still beautiful for a walk. We followed the bike path to Lincoln Park and it was fun to show it off to Kristine who'd never walked that way before. I pointed out the labyrinth and the wildflower/sculpture garden and on our way back to the downtown we discovered a new shop K had read about in the newspaper--The Twelve Houses--A Spiritual Healing Center, Gathering Place, & Metaphysical Store. Now, Kristine is convinced we need to go back to get our palms read. Not sure how I feel about that, but I'm game. Why not?

Pretties and Produce

My mom's favorite flower is the gladiola. Here are a few that bloomed. If she wasn't out of town for the weekend, these would be on her kitchen table. I love them more because they make me think of my mom and my grandma, who would often create an arrangement like this only nicer and bring it to church each Sunday so there would be fresh flowers decorating the front of pulpit.

I love dahlias. They don't last as long as I'd like them too and I wish I'd planted more colors, but they are lovely, lovely, lovely. And if I had to pick just one color to have, well anyone who knows me knows, it would be red!

My spaghetti squash seemed to grow overnight. And the tomatoes are ripening on a regular basis now. I may grow tired of cucumber slices in vinegar, but not yet. I've picked some onions, beans, and carrots too, but I didn't manage a picture.

This squash is a whole lotta food. I need to figure out what to do with them because this is the first of many soon to be ready!

Here are two bell peppers growing in my window box at the apt. They are meant to be orange. I suspect they'll be ready soon!

A Pair of Movies with Pam

We set out to rent Duplicity and it was all rented out.
We left with Sunshine Cleaning and Made of Honor.

Made of Honor was another slightly generic chick flick that felt a bit like a remake of My Best Friend's Wedding. Not only did it feature Patrick Dempsey as the lead male but an added bonus was fellow Grey's Anatomy cast mate, Kevin McKidd who played Michelle Monaghan's Scottish fiance. It was a bit of an adjustment to hear him speaking with his regular accent, when I'm so used to the Americanized vocal stylings of Mr. McKidd. The thing that irked me the most about this film was one stupid remark that could have easily been edited out. There was a line that referred to Monaghan as pushing thirty which implied that Dempsey was also close to that age. It was supposed to be set 10 years after college and I just didn't buy it. She is nearly 35 and looks it and he is nearly 45... neither of them look even remotely close to being in their late 20s. Sorry. And who, nowadays, is frantic to settle down because they are "pushing 30"? I found that offensive. Usually that is the point most people are starting to think about settling down if they haven't' stumbled upon it earlier.

Sunshine Cleaning featured a few favorites -- Emily Blunt, Amy Adams, Alan Arkin. It wasn't as funny as I thought it might be at first glance and it actually made me a bit teary from time to time. IMDB describes the film in this way: "In order to raise the tuition to send her young son to private school, a mom starts an unusual business -- a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service -- with her unreliable sister." I think this one is worth a rent.